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At the public hearings earlier this month, national and local environmental groups, residents and some local elected officials worried that the coal facility would bring pollution to neighboring communities and would harm coastal restoration efforts.

Many top guns at the EPA have resumes dotted with work for activist environmental groups. The revolving door between the EPA and often more combative greens has led to what Sen. David Vitter, R-La., calls a “sue and settle” tactic, in which the EPA and the environmental outfits get a court’s imprimatur on an arrangement they sought privately beforehand.

Zurik: $85,000 for an empty lot? Treasurer demands answers | FOX 8 WVUE – “Five years ago, the Legislature voted to give state money to a non-profit, formerly called Basic of Louisiana, to fix up their building. An empty lot is all that’s left of that investment. ‘They asked the legislature for $85,000 to fix a building that was damaged by Katrina,’ [state Treasurer]Kennedy tells us. ‘Basic said it was in the business of educating New Orleans citizens about drug and alcohol abuse.’ “

If the governor does move to replace [flood authority members] Barry and Doody with nominees who don’t support the suit, it would fit what’s become something of an administration m.o. As Jindal watchers have been noting for some time now, he’s really not a big fan of the whole independence thing.

Deputy smuggled heroin into OPP, records show | WWL-TV – Prison activist Norris Henderson said that low wages push some guards into illegal activity to increase their incomes. “According to police reports in more than a dozen earlier contraband cases, the going rate to smuggle illegal goods into the prison ranges from $100 to $400 per shipment. Several deputies have been convicted on contraband charges over the past five years.”

State Superintendent John White said Thursday a bonus system designed to reward schools for focusing on low-achieving students has improved scores, but many educators question whether schools will receive the credit they’ve earned.

The new [Common Core] standards have ignited political battles about the role of the federal government in public education, America’s international competitiveness, and the amount of time and money spent on standardized testing. But in classrooms across Louisiana and dozens of other states, the response has been more pragmatic than ideological as teachers — some optimistic and others resigned — work to align their approach to the new standards: adding more non-fiction texts to syllabi, for instance, and adjusting the way fractions are taught to emphasize that they are actually numbers of varying sizes (and not just pieces of pizza).

Mark Moseley blogs at Your Right Hand Thief. Until mid 2014, Mark Moseley was The Lens' opinion writer, engagement specialist and coordinator for the Charter Schools Reporting Corps. After Katrina and the Federal Flood he helped create the Rising Tide conference, which grew into an annual social media event dedicated to the future of New Orleans.